Something About Her
by watchitstark
Summary: Hermione visits Minerva and she tells her some things that she thought that she would never tell. HG/BL unrequited and HG/MM friendship.


**Something About Her**

Daily prompts From the Mods 8th Jan; Bacon.

_**A/N: Somehow the thought of Bella being suicidal makes me want to cry, but I wouldn't ever be able to live with the guilt, and I'd like to think that she couldn't either.**_

_**Don't laugh at the fic name, I was having trouble coming up with one.**_

"Breakfasts up!" Mrs Weasley shouted through the Weasley household and Hermione and Ginny had to stifle a laugh at the boys' usual reaction, as performed every morning; a stampede down the stairs of half dressed tousle-haired gingers, apart from the one dark haired chap, who stood out like a sore thumb as he darted over quickly to give Ginny a small peck on the cheek before throwing himself into a chair and stealing what was left after the others had ravaged it. The two girls had made sure that they had come down early so that they actually got some breakfast, because often they didn't when they slept later than nine, although Hermione did often just make her own sandwich at 11 when she finally came down if she had slept in.

"What're you doing today?" Mrs Weasley asked over the hustle and bustle.

"Me and Ginny are going to the Ministry about jobs." Harry chirped; cheerful already even though he hadn't managed to eat as much as Ron yet.

"We're playing Quidditch in the orchard if anyone wants to come?" Fred and George piped up.

"I'm game." Ron said through a mouthful or food.

"Same." Percy, Charlie and Bill added not quite on time. There were high-fives exchanged and then Mrs Weasley turned to Hermione.

"And you, Hermione dear?"

"I'll probably go to Hogwarts again and help out with the rebuilding." Molly nodded with a smile and Hermione grabbed her travelling cloak and pecked Harry and Ron on the cheek on her way out.

"How much is there left to do?" The brunette asked as the venerable Headmistress Minerva McGonagall opened the door.

"Not much. We've already done up to the Third Floor. The second upper half of the library needs doing though." Hermione grinned.

"I'll do it. I'd love to be part of the help for the library, I mean, I already owe that place so much; it was my relief, my place to go in times of need, and it was my reference when my own brain was failing and… oh, it was just so much more as well." Hermione couldn't fight the wide grin as it had spread onto her face at the very mention of the place where she had spent so much of her years at the school. Minerva found her big grin was infectious and she ended up sending one back at her, albeit not as big as the one on Hermione's face.

"It was the same for me, it's a shame that I can't go in there a lot anymore because all the students that are studying in there get nervous and stop studying, and then leave. Like they think that I'll bite or something."

"You do bite." Hermione replied cheekily and quickly dodged past her and into the castle, avoiding the playful swat that had been aimed for her upper arm, not wanting to get hit but still glad that her and Minerva had reached this stage in their friendship, as moments like this just showed how close the two had got in the last few years.

"I do not bite!" She shot back and then sighed; Hermione was the sort whom would make her regress into having a childish fight with right in the middle of the Entrance Hall.

"Do too." Hermione replied, proving her point and Minerva just rolled her eyes.

"Do you want breakfast or has Molly already force-fed you too much of it?" Hermione laughed; simply because it was true.

"That, and Ron practically inhaling bacon is enough to curb ones apatite." Both women chuckled then started to make their way to the library, exchanging friendly banter on the way about all manner of subjects. When they got to the library Hermione stopped dead in the doorway; she hadn't seen the library yet, and it almost broke her heart to see it in the state it was. The elder witch noticed the state that Hermione was in, it was exactly the same as she had been when she first saw the place, and it somehow seemed to affect her even more now, almost like Hermione should never have had to see it this way, and that she felt that she should have protected her, not brought her here, and it also made her feelings for the young witch frozen in front of her even stronger.

"Who…" Hermione started weakly, jolting Minerva out of her reverie.

"We found traces of Bellatrix's magical signature in here. Which at first I thought was strange, as she spent about the same amount of time in here as you and I did during our years at Hogwarts and then I realised; she was trying to erase anything that made her old personality come back through; to try and fool everything into thinking that she really was heartless. And coming back to Hogwarts made her memories and her old self burst to the surface, like she broke through all the barriers." Minerva said quietly.

"Bellatrix was strange at the Manor, her heart wasn't in it, and she wasn't enjoying torturing me; like she had become a completely different person. It felt like she pushed me forwards when the chandelier started to fall, straight into Ron. Like, she didn't really believe that I should die." The brunette murmured and stepped into the library, going straight to where the books were, rifling through them, sorting them into what was really broken, and then trying to find the pages that went with the broken main parts of the books. Some of the books had got through unscathed, thank God.

The darker haired witch followed her into the room and started to copy her actions.

"I knew this would happen eventually. One can only keep up the façade of madness for so long. She came here, a few weeks before the battle and said that she was going to make sure that she was dead by the end of it. It broke my heart, to see her here, still the Death Eater that she always was, and yet broken and scared like the girl that I saw at the school. She had oppressive, maybe aggressive and bullying parents, and when she first came to the school it was obvious, but no one ever said anything. But I knew, and I took her under my wing and taught her self worth for who she was, not what her blood status was." Hermione looked up, pensive.

"She found me after the Manor. I was wondering around just past the barriers of Shell Cottage, I know it was dangerous but I needed space, and thinking of her, like I always was at that point, wondering what on Earth had made her act the way she did and she just popped up in front of me. She looked as confused as I did; apparently she was trying to Apparate to somewhere else but had been pondering her actions at the manor as she Apparated and she ended up with me." Hermione paused. "We talked, for a long time, just sat on a boulder and talked ourselves hoarse. She never showed up again, and somehow, even though I only saw her only once and she always seemed to be trying to kill me, and after all she has done, I still find myself missing her." Hermione looked up, unnoticed tears dripping down her face. Minerva looked stricken; she had no idea what to do.

"Hermione, I don't know what to suggest."

"I don't either." She answered miserably.

"I do know how you can get partly over it though." Hermione's head shot up.

"Go and talk to Albus's portrait; he was in a similar situation over Gellert." Hermione practically ran out the room and Minerva sighed; this was going to be a long journey for Hermione, but she was prepared to be there all the way.

_**A/N: Leave a review and I'll send you cyber hugs? :P **_


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